December Daily update

     First off I hope that you are all enjoying this wonderful holiday season.  I know I've been pretty scarce on the bloggie scene.  To be honest this past fall and winter have been an up and down roller coaster for me health wise.  It seems that I have worried myself into some sort of stomach problems (i.e. ulcer or whatever) that causes me some pretty down days.  I thought the round of meds the doc had given me had cured the problem, but it came back with a vengeance.  They are actually sending me to a cardiologist Monday for some tests to make sure it's not my heart.  That's where my pain seems to be centered so they want to rule that out.
     So basically I have fits and spurts of feeling good enough to do anything, therefore not as much crafting going on as I would normally do or surfing the web.  I have managed to get some work done on my December Daily though.  I haven't decided whether I'll take it past Christmas or not, but if I don't I'm about half way there.  YAY!  So here's what I have to share.

     While digging in my stash I found an old set of embellishments from Making Memories that's colors matched my papers perfectly.  The little sentiment strips and buttons were in it.  The number circles were a free download I found on line.  The first page is mostly journaling.  For the photo I purchased some of the Simple Stories Snap photo pocket pages and trimmed it to fit.  It was too long so I stitched the bottom closed and cut off the excess.

     I added another photo for the other side of the photo pocket and Like my friend Nancy who just posted deets on the cutest Christmas tree mini album, when you open the pages they are all facing right side up.  I wish the album had been side bound for easier opening, but it is what it is.  The day two page is an insert I created since the album only came with six pages.  This page flips out to reveal two pocket pages inside.

     I filled my pockets with journaling tags and matted photos.  The Christmas Santa calender in the right hand pocket was a freebie off the internet.

     The back side of the insert is another pocket page holding days 4 and 5.  Day six is an acrylic album page.  I have never worked with an acrylic page before and was a little lost on what to do with it.  However the photos worked out just right for it to be tree decorating day and I thought this beautiful picture of the lights would look wonderful framed in frost.  I used some ancient Opaque white Stazon I had which wasn't working to well.  I managed to get it looking decent and then I added some transparent sparkly embossing powder.  You have to be careful when embossing acrylic.  It will warp and I had to flatten out my scallops several times.

     Got the start and finish of the tree done by my baby girl on the other side of the acrylic page.  For day 7-8 I created another insert with a fold down flap.  The front of the flap has a cute Jillibean Soup mini bag to hold the journaling tag.  I didn't get a pic of the folded down flap so you can see the snowman cookie jar page.  This thing was a booger to photograph in my lightbox.  I will be doing a video of it later and things will be much easier to see then.

     This page features a small part of my Lenox snowman collection.  My mom has bought me several of them over the years and I decided to capture the Snow Band.  I added a couple of stars cut from corrugated cardboard and will probably add something else to that bare bottom corner.
     Need to get some more pics developed so I can share some more pages.
     Have yourself a wonderful weekend!

Postcard mini Album Sneak Peek

     Looky!  Looky! couple of sneaky peeks of the postcard mini album base.

     For some reason last night I was swamped with ideas for embellishing it.  Now if I can just put them to use.  LOL  AND remember them all bwahahaha.  Got another card from Donna in Canada.  Thanks!
     Happy weekend!

Time to go....have some fun!

     Okay, here is what has been taking up so much of my time lately.  About a month ago my bestie asked me if I would be interested in making a mini album for one of her co-workers who is retiring.  I've been wanting to make a mini FOREVAH so this was the perfect excuse.  Now some of you are familiar with my minis and some aren't.  First off let me say that I think this one was created in record time for me.  I am a top of the line OCD perfectionist so these little projects usually take me ages to complete.  However, the lady who this is going to is not a scrapper and I figured the full bells and whistles mini treatments would be a bit over the top for her so the book is fairly CAS.  I did have to have some fun though so I managed to sneak in a bit of mixed media fun as well as some cool scrapping techniques I found on the web.

     I'm going to give some deets about each page so if you want to skip the jibber jabber and just check out the pics be my guest.  I hope to have a video up on YT for it within a day or two.

     The whole album was constructed using a chipboard album from the Michaels $1 bin.  The pages are covered with some really cool textured paper I found a Mike's.  It was rather a pain to adhere things too, but it was worth the trouble for the texture.  The brick work came from a tutorial you can find on the amazing Lisa Gregory's blog.  Love this ladies scrapping!  They are created with a stencil, ink, and modeling paste.  The Tim Holtz clock was die cut in two layers of chipboard and one of paper and then covered with Crackle Accents.  The hands were left unpainted and edged with gold ink.  The vines were sprayed with water/gold Perfect Pearls for some shimmer and the leaves were edged in gold ink.  I gave the flower a few squirts of the PP too and colored the stamens with a Copic.
     Here's a little closer look at the clock face and brick work.

     I don't do personal photos on the Internet and I respected the privacy of the people in the photos I used by blurring their faces in photo shop.  For this page I made a faux pocket using a Tim Holtz On the Edge die that I layered and paper pierced.  The album was created from Pink Paislees Cottage Farm Collection.  All the DP and paper ephemera are from the collection.

     I didn't show all the tags in this post, but you can see them all sticking out from the edge of the page.  Four of the pages have a large photo mat with a picture on it and all but the cover page have at least one journaling tag tucked in.

     Lots of machine stitching throughout the album and all the photos are matted in gray and black to accent the designer papers.

     I took the difficult path to do the stitching on this page.  I wanted the darker paper to look like a recessed channel, but it really didn't come off that way IRL.

     I broke out the modeling past and another stencil for this page.

     I was really surprised at how much the paper shrunk up when I sprayed it with water to soften it for the wrinkling.  I wish I had made the stitching a bit smaller and closer together.  Hind sight and all you know.

     Had to throw some fishtail banners in there somewhere.  hee hee

     This was the first place I used the bricks and I liked them so much I had to put some on the cover.

     And finally the back.  I had originally planned to put this card and frame from the ephemera on the front, but couldn't get it to work until after I had already glued down the clock. grrrrr  So it went on the back with a cute quote about retirement and my personalized stamp tucked in on that little gray snippet peeping out.

     Hope you liked the album even without all the bells and whistles.  Have a great day!

TSG Stampbook Saturday

WARNING!!!  Photo heavy!

     Several of you know that I started off on the internet making mini scrapbooking albums.  They are VERY time consuming, but I do soooo love making them.

     Today is my turn at There She Goes to post a Scrapbook Saturday project.  The "Puppy Love" set by Torico from TSG is one of my faves.  I just think these little pups are so stinkin' cute.

     My pup is not much of a pup any more.  She just turned 14 and I've been wanting to do a little album about her so this was the perfect opportunity.  I've used a Michael's $1 bin chipboard album that's been in my stash forevah!  I started to give the details here, but there's just too much, so if you want to know the page by page deets you can check out this video on YouTube.   Here's each page in photos.  ☺

 

     Hope you enjoyed my little album.  I managed to pack in about 25 of the 39 stamps in the set!

     I'll be out of pocket this coming week so don't think I've forgotten you if you don't hear from me.

     I'd like to enter my album in a few challenges:

Inspire Me Friday--anything goes

Top Tip Tuesday--we're all heart

Make It Monday--anything goes

Tammy's Scrappin' Corner--anything goes

Dream Valley Challenge--anything goes

     Hugs!

Matchbook Mini Album Tutorial for The Kraft Journal

     Hi everyone!  This week I want to share a tutorial for a little matchbook mini album.  I saw a tutorial for one of these at swirlydoos.com on their forum and I just thought it was so cute.
     To make it you will need three to six regular lunch bags.  Nowadays these things come in tons of different sizes so you may have to adjust your measurements depending upon your bag size.  Mine measure about 5 1/4" x 10 7/8".  Babette has some great little coffee bags in the Kraft Outlet store that would be awesome for one of these albums.  I changed my mind about what tutorial I was going to do or I would have used them.  They have a really nice plastic coated lining inside that makes them nice and sturdy.
     From the top you will measure down 5 1/2" and cut.  You just need the top portion.  Do this with all your bags.

     Next you want to cut a piece of cardstock measuring 5 1/2" x 12".  It needs to be scored at 1", 6 1/2", and 7".

     For my album I chose to distress and ink all the edges.  That's up to you.

     Next you can decorate your "pages".  For mine I decided to use a large polka dot rubber stamp and a pretty lacy border stamp to decorate my bags.  I stamped with Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder.  It really pops on the kraft bags.

     After they are all embossed, stack them and place them in the album so that the one inch flap you scored folds up over the bottom edge of the bags and staple.

     Now, just like a little matchbook, the decorated cover of the album slides down under the bottom lip to hold it closed.  For the cover I used Brown Kraft and Buff Ivory Cover Weight cardstock and a Scalloped Grungy Prim Tag from Kraft Outlet.

     This makes such a cute little mini album that can actually be used as a card which is what I'm doing with this one.  My friends teenage daughter is having her birthday party this weekend and I'll be giving her this.  She can put any special little notes or memorabilia from her b-day in the pockets or print out her party photos and keep them in there.

     Hope you'll give this simple tutorial a try.  I think you'll love the results.
     I'd like to enter this matchbook mini into the following challenges:

Creative Craft Challenges--anything but a card
Digital Tuesday--cute and girly
Incy Wincy Designs--anything but a card
Sentimental Sundays--birthday

     Have a great week!

Other Supplies

Papers:  My Minds Eye, Recollections, Copic X-Press It Blending card

Stamp:  Tickled Pink "Lil Birthday Kellita", My Mind's Eye Stella Rose Hattie "Remember", Stampabilities "Polka Dot Background"

Ink:  Copic markers, Spiced Marmalade and Vintage Photo Distress inks, Versamark

Tools:  Martha Stewart Eyelet Lace edge punch, Marvy Uchida Heat Gun

Miscellaneous:  Offray ribbon, Studio 12 pearls, Stampendous Opaque White embossing powder

The Mini Revealing!

     I couldn't stand it!  When I got up yesterday morning I started working on the mini and couldn't stop despite all the OTHER things I NEEDED to do.  LOL  If I don't stay on it when the mojo strikes I'll come back and have forgotten all the ideas I had.  :-)
     So this is the big reveal.  I haven't done the journaling yet and I'll probably put another pocket and more journaling on the back for a kind of summary so it's not really 100% done, but it's ready to share.  And yes Dana, there will be a video for YT.  LOL (video is now up at my YT channel here)
     Here's the cover.

     The whole album was made with one of the $1 chipboard albums from Michaels, Pink Paislees Butterfly Garden collection, and ALL the images used throughout are from A Day For Daisies including the "Flower Frame" you see here.  And of course they're all colored with Copics!  Surprise!  LOL  The frame was printed twice so I could pop the flowers up 3-D style.  For the frame itself, I glued about four layers of thin chipboard together and then glued the image on top.  I wanted the frame to look like wood so I used a sepia Micron pen to add some wood grain.  For the inside of the frame I used some lace that my LSS owner found for me in her stash and graciously added some fusible backing onto so I could use it in my album.  I just ironed it to the page.  Voila'!  I found the acrylic letters at Big Lots for $.25 a pack!  They're colored with alcohol ink.  The butterfly is Kaisercraft covered in Picket Fence and Rock Candy Crackle paint with a little distress ink on the edges.  Ribbon, lace, pearls, and some bead charms I put together finish it off.

     Each page of the album is a reflection of one of my daughters character traits.  More ribbon, lace and pearls and the trait spelled out in the same letters I used on the cover.  Each image is attached to a pocket that holds a journaling card so that I can elaborate on the trait.  Everything is machine stitched in this album too.

     On this page I used some of the newer Recollections flowers out at Michaels.  I also used some hemp cording I got at Kraft Outlet to create the vine and I punched the leaves with a MS punch.  They're painted with more of the shimmery Creative Inspirations paint I mentioned in yesterdays post, and inked with a little distress ink.

     This page has some MS Monarch butterfly punch outs, more of those Recollections flowers, ribbon and pearls.  Each of the images also has some chalking for the background color.  Love those treble cleft paperclips from Staples!

     Yet more lace, ribbon and pearls.  The small roses are the little resin ones Michaels has started carrying.  I added a few MS Frond punches lightly inked and a few little pearl stamens to the flower bouquet.

     My sweet friend Silvia sent me a package a while back with some beautiful Prima bling pieces in it.  I tried so hard to use the looking glass one on the last page but it was just a bit too large.  I did use the key on this page though and tied a piece of peach ribbon on it.  The little butterfly  is a MS punch painted with some pale blue irridescent puff paint.

     This is my favorite page in the book.  I was just so happy with the way the coloring came out.  I added another butterfly I punched from some of the DP.  The little flowers and leaves were all punched and painted with the CI paint and I used some more of the hemp cord.

     The crown is another piece of the Prima bling set Silvia sent me.  The flower was made from Tim Holtz Tattered Florals punches and painted with CI paint (the leaves too).  As I explained yesterday, the butterfly is actually part of the paper.  I just cut around most of it so I could pop it up over the pocket and flowers.  There's a bit of Perfect Pearls on her shoe and some Diamond Stickles to add extra shine to it.

     Sigh . . . my baby is no longer a baby and will probably be getting married within a year or so.  The gorgeous trim came from Hobby Lobby and the little butterflies were painted with Bisque Liquid Pearls.
     So that's my little album.  I hope you like it.  Tammy's images are so beautiful and I was able to find one for each of the traits I used in the book.  Of course my kiddo is a lot more that these and I'm sure she's just going to loooovve the drama queen page.  LOL  I just wanted to make a little something to tell her what I see when I look at her--my most precious gift.
     I found a few challenges to enter this into.

Tuesday Throwdown--non stamped sentiment
Creative Craft Challenges--anything but a card
Craft Your Passion--anything but a card
Make It Monday--anything goes
Paper Playtime--anything goes
Pink Elephant--stitching
Pollycraft--distressing (the edges of all the pages are distressed)
Crafty Pad--cute and girly
Allsorts--anything but a card
The Outlaws Paper a la Mode--anything but a card
Fussy and Fancy--use three or more of your favorite embellies
Craft Us Crazy--anything goes in August
Paper Shelter Challenge--stitching
Cupcake Craftroom--soft and sweet

Have a fabulous week!